This study was designed to distinguish by the characteristic difference and the degree of symptoms such as fatigue, pain, coping to pain, and efficacy on pain, and to offer descriptive data for nursing intervention for improving coping ability to pain along each characteristics of disease in chronic arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. The subjects were 135 outpatients in the hospital for rheumatic disease in H-university, Seoul. The data were collected by structural questionnaire, from April 29 to June 29, 1999. The results were that the fatigue score was high in the OA patients while the RA patients and SLE patients experienced middle range of fatigue score, but which was not statistically different. Although the RA patients felt higher pain than other diseases, they have well coped with their pain than the others. In efficacy on pain the SLE patients had higher score than others but all of the disease showed lower score. No statistically significant difference among the three group was recorded in efficacy on pain. Therefore, pain management in the RA patients was primary nursing intervention because they felt severe pain and have well coped with pain while they had lower pain efficacy score than the others. It is also important that fatigue management and coping strategies on pain for the OA patients and SLE patients are specially supportive in the nursing intervention.